We, your holy people, were driven out by our enemies for a little while; they trampled down your sanctuary.

Put it in writing, because it is not yet time for it to come true. But the time is coming quickly, and what I show you will come true. It may seem slow in coming, but wait for it; it will certainly take place, and it will not be delayed.

"Before long I will shake heaven and earth, land and sea.

For, as the scripture says, "Just a little while longer, and he who is coming will come; he will not delay.

But once more God will send us his spirit. The wasteland will become fertile, and fields will produce rich crops.

The desert will rejoice, and flowers will bloom in the wastelands.

The desert will sing and shout for joy; it will be as beautiful as the Lebanon Mountains and as fertile as the fields of Carmel and Sharon. Everyone will see the LORD's splendor, see his greatness and power.

I will make cedars grow in the desert, and acacias and myrtles and olive trees. Forests will grow in barren land, forests of pine and juniper and cypress.

Before I was born, the LORD appointed me; he made me his servant to bring back his people, to bring back the scattered people of Israel. The LORD gives me honor; he is the source of my strength.

The LORD said to me, "I have a greater task for you, my servant. Not only will you restore to greatness the people of Israel who have survived, but I will also make you a light to the nations--- so that all the world may be saved."

Cypress trees will grow where now there are briers; myrtle trees will come up in place of thorns. This will be a sign that will last forever, a reminder of what I, the LORD, have done."

It will be your fate to die a violent death, because you did not answer when I called you or listen when I spoke. You chose to disobey me and do evil.

They will sing for joy, but you will cry with a broken heart.

Anyone in the land who asks for a blessing will ask to be blessed by the faithful God. Whoever takes an oath will swear by the name of the faithful God. The troubles of the past will be gone and forgotten."

The LORD said to Hosea, "Name him 'Not-My-People,' because the people of Israel are not my people, and I am not their God."

The people of Israel will become like the sand of the sea, more than can be counted or measured. Now God says to them, "You are not my people," but the day is coming when he will say to them, "You are the children of the living God!"

But many who now are first will be last, and many who now are last will be first.

"And so I tell you," added Jesus, "the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce the proper fruits."

I ask, then: When the Jews stumbled, did they fall to their ruin? By no means! Because they sinned, salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make the Jews jealous of them.

I am speaking now to you Gentiles: As long as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I will take pride in my work.

For when they were rejected, all other people were changed from God's enemies into his friends. What will it be, then, when they are accepted? It will be life for the dead!

Some of the branches of the cultivated olive tree have been broken off, and a branch of a wild olive tree has been joined to it. You Gentiles are like that wild olive tree, and now you share the strong spiritual life of the Jews.

I will let it be overgrown with weeds. I will not trim the vines or hoe the ground; instead, I will let briers and thorns cover it. I will even forbid the clouds to let rain fall on it."

"Mortal man," he said, "look toward the south. Speak against the south and prophesy against the forest of the south.

Tell the southern forest to hear what the Sovereign LORD is saying: Look! I am starting a fire, and it will burn up every tree in you, whether green or dry. Nothing will be able to put it out. It will spread from south to north, and everyone will feel the heat of the flames.

In just this way the people of Israel will have to live for a long time without kings or leaders, without sacrifices or sacred stone pillars, without idols or images to use for divination.

And so, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a pile of ruins, and the Temple hill will become a forest.

Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire can burn down your cedar trees!

Weep and wail, cypress trees--- the cedars have fallen; those glorious trees have been destroyed! Weep and wail, oaks of Bashan--- the dense forest has been cut down!

On his way back to the city early next morning, Jesus was hungry.

He saw a fig tree by the side of the road and went to it, but found nothing on it except leaves. So he said to the tree, "You will never again bear fruit!" At once the fig tree dried up.

But you will say, "Yes, but the branches were broken off to make room for me."

God did not spare the Jews, who are like natural branches; do you think he will spare you?

And if the Jews abandon their unbelief, they will be put back in the place where they were; for God is able to do that.

There is a secret truth, my friends, which I want you to know, for it will keep you from thinking how wise you are. It is that the stubbornness of the people of Israel is not permanent, but will last only until the complete number of Gentiles comes to God.

I will make this covenant with them when I take away their sins."